1. Technical Field
The present invention relates, in general, to immunogenic preparations and, in particular, to peptides comprising amino acid sequences corresponding to a region of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) envelope protein, against which neutralizing antibodies are produced. The invention further relates to a vaccine comprising the peptide coupled, either directly or through a spacer molecule, to a carrier molecule, suitable for vaccination of humans.
2. Background Information
The human retrovirus HIV has been demonstrated to be the causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a disease for which there is currently no cure. The epidemiologic pattern among AIDS-related cases indicates that it is a transmissible disease. The virus is frequently found in saliva, semen, whole blood and plasma from individuals in high risk categories, including male homosexuals, intravenous drug users, patients receiving blood products, and individuals from Haiti and Central Africa. The rapid rise in seropositivity among individuals in high risk categories, the virulence of the disease, and its growing world-wide distribution, underscore an overwhelming and immediate need for a vaccine capable of inducing complete protective immunity in non-infected individuals. The need for diagnostic reagents to be used in testing for the presence of antibodies against HIV in biological samples is also clear.
Previous work has demonstrated that HIV infects T lymphocytes of the immune system by attaching its external envelope glycoprotein (gp120) to the CD4 (T4) molecule on the surface of T lymphocytes, thus using the CD4 (T4) molecule as a receptor to enter and infect T cells. After infecting the cell, the virus subverts the ability of the T cell to fend off the virus.
Retroviral envelope glycoproteins have been shown to be important in evoking a virus-neutralizing antibody response, as determined by the ability of sera containing anti-envelope antibodies to inhibit HIV infection in vitro. Specifically, the HIV external envelope glycoprotein gp120 has been shown to be capable of inducing neutralizing antibodies in coats and in man (Robey et al., Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. (USA) 83: 7023, 1986). Little is known of the precise location of epitopes on gp120 that are either immunogenic in HIV-infected patients or that give rise to neutralizing antibodies. However, the recombinant protein PB1 (Putney et al., Science, 234:1392, 1986), which encodes approximately one-third of the entire gp120 molecule, has been shown to include the part of the envelope protein that induces the formation of neutralizing antibodies.
The data accumulated to date suggest that neither PB1 nor intact gp120 are appropriate for use in a vaccine against HIV infection. Studies involving the use of goats and chimpanzees demonstrate that neither molecule has the ability to induce the production of high titers of neutralizing antibodies. In addition, it has been shown that the intact gp120 molecule binds to the T4 molecule of normal T cells and is capable of disrupting normal immune function. Specifically, whole gp120 envelope molecules interfere with normal CD4 (T4) function and suppress T cell activation in vitro (Mann et al., J. Immunol. 138:2640, 1987). Thus, the administration of vaccines comprising large pieces of the external envelope glycoprotein may actually be detrimental to the normal immune system.
It has become clear that HIV sequence diversity in the principle neutralizing domain of gp120 (the V3 gp120 envelope loop region) and rapid V3 loop sequence mutation rate is a major obstacle to overcome for vaccine development (Myers et al., Human Retroviruses and AIDS 1991; La Rosa et al., Science, 249:932-935, 1990; and Holley et al., PNAS (USA), 88:6800-6804, 1991). Nonetheless, studies continue to show the critical role that the gp120 V3 region plays in generating anti-HIV neutralizing antibodies (Jiang et al., J. Exp. Med. 174:1557-1593, 1990). Moreover, it has recently been shown that approximately 50% of current HIV isolates share a consensus of V3 sequences that is similar to the HIV MN isolate, and that approximately 80% of HIV isolates in the US share one of the 4 most common HIV sequences (Myers et al., Human Retroviruses and AIDS 1991; La Rosa et al., Science, 249:932-935, 1990; and Holley et al., PNAS (USA), 88:6800-6804, 1991). Further, two of these sequences, GPGRAF and IHIGPGRA, have induced widely cross-reactive HIV neutralizing antibodies in animals (Jahaverian et al., Science, 250:1590-1593, 1990 and Haynes et al., AIDS Res. Humans. Retroviral, 6:38-39, 1990).
Thus, critical to the development of a vaccine against HIV, is the generation of an antibody response against gp120 that will interfere with gp120 interaction with the CD4 (T4) molecule, but will not interfere with normal CD4 (T4) interaction with class II major histocapatibility molecules, a major normal function of the CD4 (T4) molecule in the mediation of a myriad of stages of normal T cell response. In addition, an effective vaccine against HIV will induce protective immune responses in primates and in man, that is, will prevent subsequent HIV infection from occurring.
An immunogen that induced salutory (protective) anti-HIV immune responses for about 80% of HIV strains would be of great clinical use in at least three settings. First, the successful immunization of HIV negative IV drug users, prison inmates and homosexual populations thought to be at high risk for contracting HIV infection would significantly blunt the progression of the AIDS epidemic. Second, if immunization of HIV-infected mothers during the first trimester of pregnancy could boost salutory anti-HIV virus responses and decrease transmission of HIV by 80%, then maternal-fetal HIV transmission would decrease form 30% to 6% of children born to HIV-infected mothers. Third, an immunogen against HIV that induced salutory and not pathogenic anti-HIV responses, would be useful for immunization of HIV-infected assymptomatic individuals to boost anti-HIV immune responses, and promote the maintenance of the assymptomatic HIV-infected state.